Sen. Roy Blunt, seated left, discussed local and federal issues
with Washington city officials and civic leaders during an informal
session Friday afternoon at city hall. Mayor Sandy Lucy, right,
asked questions on federal transportation aid, including funding
for a new Missouri at Washington over the Missouri River.

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Blunt Says Entitlement Reform Key to Fixing Federal Budget Woes

Sen. Roy Blunt, seated left, discussed local and federal issues
with Washington city officials and civic leaders during an informal
session Friday afternoon at city hall. Mayor Sandy Lucy, right,
asked questions on federal transportation aid, including funding
for a new Missouri at Washington over the Missouri River.

Reforming entitlement programs and promoting job growth are the
two key issues for getting the federal government back on track,
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt told people at Washington City Hall Friday,
Dec. 2.

Blunt said entitlement programs including Medicare and Social
Security both need to be looked at.

“This year, for the first time ever, all of the money that came
in, 101 percent, went to entitlement programs,” he said.

Blunt’s claims don’t mesh with federal budget offices,
however.

According to the 2010 federal fiscal year, the government
generated $2.2 trillion in revenue from Social Security, corporate
and individual income taxes, and other sources.

About $2.03 trillion of the nation’s $3.5 trillion in expenses
during the same fiscal year went toward entitlement programs,
according to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Those programs include Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,
unemployment and other entitlements.

“That means we borrowed money for everything else,” Blunt
said.

He said those sort of spending issues should be solved by
Congress now, when the House and Senate are split, because
responsibility is shared.

Blunt said not reining in spending was “one of the real missed
opportunities during the past year.

“They aren’t hard to solve. They’re just hard to solve if no one
takes responsibility,” he said.

Worth noting is that $865 billion in Social Security taxes were
collected with only $701 billion spent, according to the
Congressional Budget Office.

Medicare and Social Security spending is forecast to increase
dramatically in the coming years, however, as the number of persons
enrolled, and the overall cost of health care, rises rapidly.

There is no 2011 federal budget, as Congress didn’t pass
President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for the fiscal year, which
ended in September.

The 2012 budget, which Blunt said is beginning to make its way
through Congress in a series of appropriations bills, shows $2.6
trillion in estimated revenues and about $3.7 trillion in
spending.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment, welfare
and other programs make up $2.1 trillion of that.

The breakdown of those requested funds and the percent change
from the 2011 requested, but not enacted, levels is:

Social Security, $761 billion, up 2.6 percent;

Medicare, $485 billion, down 0.6 percent;

Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or
SCHIP, $269 billion, down 2.5 percent; and